As applications available with various Consumer Electronics (CE) devices become richer and more complex, the means of communicating with users of such devices, such as user interfaces (UI), including Graphical User Interface (GUI), have also become more complicated. For example, some recent TVs have an application to show pictures or JPEG images in addition to normal television functioning. Typically thumbnails of pictures are laid out on the TV screen so that a user selects one of them by use of a Remote Controller (RC) to display it in full screen or to retouch. While this type of application is familiar on a PC and is readily controlled by the user by controlling a mouse, using the same type of application on a CE device with a conventional IR remote commander is a challenge and not readily easy to use. When picture thumbnails are arrayed in a 4×5 matrix, for example, moving highlight from bottom left side of the matrix to the other diagonal corner requires seven presses of direction button on RC, which is not convenient. The same operation can be done instantly by a mouse in the case of PC. There thus exists a need to support navigation of UI or GUIs displayed on display devices of CE devices for various applications.
Remote controllers used with CE device have been adapted in an effort to more readily support GUI navigation. For example, the Wii game console has a remote controller that a user can point at a screen by moving the remote controller itself rather than simply moving a highlighted portion on the GUI menu by navigation buttons. This, however, requires motion sensing devices and/or other radio frequency (RF) communication devices to work. RF devices in particular are quite costly and present a problem of high battery consumption.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.